Search results for: strategic environmental assessment
788 Quantification of Periodicities in Fugitive Emission of Gases from Lyari Waterway
Authors: Rana Khalid Naeem, Asif Mansoor
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Periodicities in the environmetric time series can be idyllically assessed by utilizing periodic models. In this communication fugitive emission of gases from open sewer channel Lyari which follows periodic behaviour are approximated by employing periodic autoregressive model of order p. The orders of periodic model for each season are selected through the examination of periodic partial autocorrelation or information criteria. The parameters for the selected order of season are estimated individually for each emitted air toxin. Subsequently, adequacies of fitted models are established by examining the properties of the residual for each season. These models are beneficial for schemer and administrative bodies for the improvement of implemented policies to surmount future environmental problems.Keywords: Exchange of Gases, Goodness of Fit, Open Sewer Channel, PAR(p) Models, Periodicities, Season Wise Models.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1256787 A Framework for Investigating Reverse Logistics Capability of E-Tailers
Authors: Wen-Shan Lin, Shu-Lu Hsu
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Environmental concern and consumer rights have entailed e-tailers to adopt better strategies to facilitate product returns from customers. As the demand for reverse logistics (RL) continues to grow, little is known about what motivates e-tailers to enhance their RL capabilities and about the role RL capabilities plays in enabling e-tailers to achieve better customer satisfaction and economic performance. Based on resource-based theory and institutional theory, this article proposes that the following factors play a critical role in influencing the RL capability of e-tailers: (a) Financial resource commitment to RL, (b) managerial resource commitment to RL, and (c) institutional pressure to implement RL. Based on the role of these factors, the study provides a framework and propositions that serve to guide future research addressing the link among resources, institutional pressure, and RL capability.Keywords: Reverse logistics, e-tailing, resource-based theory, institutional theory.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1232786 Investigating the Treatability of a Compost Leachate in a Hybrid Anaerobic Reactor: An Experimental Study
Authors: Shima Rajabi, Leila Vafajoo
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Compost manufacturing plants are one of units where wastewater is produced in significantly large amounts. Wastewater produced in these plants contains high amounts of substrate (organic loads) and is classified as stringent waste which creates significant pollution when discharged into the environment without treatment. A compost production plant in the one of the Iran-s province treating 200 tons/day of waste is one of the most important environmental pollutant operations in this zone. The main objectives of this paper are to investigate the compost wastewater treatability in hybrid anaerobic reactors with an upflow-downflow arrangement, to determine the kinetic constants, and eventually to obtain an appropriate mathematical model. After starting the hybrid anaerobic reactor of the compost production plant, the average COD removal rate efficiency was 95%.Keywords: Leachate treatment, anaerobic hybrid reactor
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1836785 The Improvement of Environmental Protection through Motor Vehicle Noise Abatement
Authors: Z. Jovanovic, Z. Masonicic, S. Dragutinovic, Z. Sakota
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In this paper, a methodology for noise reduction of motor vehicles in use is presented. The methodology relies on synergic model of noise generation as a function of time. The arbitrary number of motor vehicle noise sources act in concert yielding the generation of the overall noise level of motor vehicle thereafter. The number of noise sources participating in the overall noise level of motor vehicle is subjected to the constraint of the calculation of the acoustic potential of each noise source under consideration. It is the prerequisite condition for the calculation of the acoustic potential of the whole vehicle. The recast form of pertinent set of equations describing the synergic model is laid down and solved by dint of Gauss method. The bunch of results emerged and some of them i.e. those ensuing from model application to MDD FAP Priboj motor vehicle in use are particularly elucidated.
Keywords: Noise abatement, MV noise sources, noise source identification, muffler.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1291784 Enhanced Weighted Centroid Localization Algorithm for Indoor Environments
Authors: I. Nižetić Kosović, T. Jagušt
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Lately, with the increasing number of location-based applications, demand for highly accurate and reliable indoor localization became urgent. This is a challenging problem, due to the measurement variance which is the consequence of various factors like obstacles, equipment properties and environmental changes in complex nature of indoor environments. In this paper we propose low-cost custom-setup infrastructure solution and localization algorithm based on the Weighted Centroid Localization (WCL) method. Localization accuracy is increased by several enhancements: calibration of RSSI values gained from wireless nodes, repetitive measurements of RSSI to exclude deviating values from the position estimation, and by considering orientation of the device according to the wireless nodes. We conducted several experiments to evaluate the proposed algorithm. High accuracy of ~1m was achieved.
Keywords: Indoor environment, received signal strength indicator, weighted centroid localization, wireless localization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3102783 The Experience of Iranian Architecture in Direction of Urban Passages and Forming of Urban Structures to Increase Climatic Comfort
Authors: N. Utaberta, N. Sharifi, M. Surat, A. I. Che-Ani, N.M. Tawil
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Iran has diverse climates and each have established distinct properties in their area. The extent and intensity of climatic factors effects on the lives of people living in various regions of Iran is so great that it cannot be simply ignored. In a large part of Iran known as the Central Plateau there is no precipitation for more than half of the year and dry weather and scarcity of fresh water pose an ever present problem for the people of these regions while in north of Iran upon the southern shores of the Caspian Sea the people face 80% humidity caused by the sea and 2 meters of annual precipitation. This article tries to review the past experiences of local architecture of Iran-s various regions so that they can be used to reshape and redirect the urban areas and structure of Iran-s current cities to provide environmental comfort by minimum use of fossil fuels.
Keywords: Urban Passage, Architecture in Iran, Urban Structure, Climatic Comfort
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1624782 Multiple Criteria Decision Making Analysis for Selecting and Evaluating Fighter Aircraft
Authors: C. Ardil, A. M. Pashaev, R.A. Sadiqov, P. Abdullayev
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In this paper, multiple criteria decision making analysis technique, is presented for ranking and selection of a set of determined alternatives - fighter aircraft - which are associated with a set of decision factors. In fighter aircraft design, conflicting decision criteria, disciplines, and technologies are always involved in the design process. Multiple criteria decision making analysis techniques can be helpful to effectively deal with such situations and make wise design decisions. Multiple criteria decision making analysis theory is a systematic mathematical approach for dealing with problems which contain uncertainties in decision making. The feasibility and contributions of applying the multiple criteria decision making analysis technique in fighter aircraft selection analysis is explored. In this study, an integrated framework incorporating multiple criteria decision making analysis technique in fighter aircraft analysis is established using entropy objective weighting method. An improved integrated multiple criteria decision making analysis method is utilized to aggregate the multiple decision criteria into one composite figure of merit, which serves as an objective function in the decision process. Therefore, it is demonstrated that the suitable multiple criteria decision making analysis method with decision solution provides an effective objective function for the decision making analysis. Considering that the inherent uncertainties and the weighting factors have crucial decision impacts on the fighter aircraft evaluation, seven fighter aircraft models for the multiple design criteria in terms of the weighting factors are constructed. The proposed multiple criteria decision making analysis model is based on integrated entropy index procedure, and additive multiple criteria decision making analysis theory. Hence, the applicability of proposed technique for fighter aircraft selection problem is considered. The constructed multiple criteria decision making analysis model can provide efficient decision analysis approach for uncertainty assessment of the decision problem. Consequently, the fighter aircraft alternatives are ranked based their final evaluation scores, and sensitivity analysis is conducted.
Keywords: Fighter Aircraft, Fighter Aircraft Selection, Multiple Criteria Decision Making, Multiple Criteria Decision Making Analysis, MCDMA
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 624781 Hyperspectral Imaging and Nonlinear Fukunaga-Koontz Transform Based Food Inspection
Authors: Hamidullah Binol, Abdullah Bal
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Nowadays, food safety is a great public concern; therefore, robust and effective techniques are required for detecting the safety situation of goods. Hyperspectral Imaging (HSI) is an attractive material for researchers to inspect food quality and safety estimation such as meat quality assessment, automated poultry carcass inspection, quality evaluation of fish, bruise detection of apples, quality analysis and grading of citrus fruits, bruise detection of strawberry, visualization of sugar distribution of melons, measuring ripening of tomatoes, defect detection of pickling cucumber, and classification of wheat kernels. HSI can be used to concurrently collect large amounts of spatial and spectral data on the objects being observed. This technique yields with exceptional detection skills, which otherwise cannot be achieved with either imaging or spectroscopy alone. This paper presents a nonlinear technique based on kernel Fukunaga-Koontz transform (KFKT) for detection of fat content in ground meat using HSI. The KFKT which is the nonlinear version of FKT is one of the most effective techniques for solving problems involving two-pattern nature. The conventional FKT method has been improved with kernel machines for increasing the nonlinear discrimination ability and capturing higher order of statistics of data. The proposed approach in this paper aims to segment the fat content of the ground meat by regarding the fat as target class which is tried to be separated from the remaining classes (as clutter). We have applied the KFKT on visible and nearinfrared (VNIR) hyperspectral images of ground meat to determine fat percentage. The experimental studies indicate that the proposed technique produces high detection performance for fat ratio in ground meat.Keywords: Food (Ground meat) inspection, Fukunaga-Koontz transform, hyperspectral imaging, kernel methods.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1499780 Corporate Governance, Shareholder Monitoring and Cost of Debt in Malaysia
Authors: Zulkufly Ramly
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This paper attempts to investigate the effect of corporate governance and shareholder monitoring mechanisms on cost of debt of Malaysian listed firms. We assess the quality of corporate governance using comprehensive corporate governance index, which consists of 139 items in six broad categories. We classify shareholder monitoring mechanisms into concentrated ownership, family, insider and government ownerships. Using panel sample from 2003 to 2007, regression results show that high corporate governance quality and concentrated ownership lower firm cost of debt. Debt issuers consider board structure and procedures, board compensation practices, accountability and audit, transparency and social and environmental activities as integral components of a good corporate governance framework.
Keywords: Corporate governance index, cost of debt, ownership structure, Malaysia.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3505779 A Study of the Damages to Historical Monuments due to Climatic Factors and Air Pollution and Offering Solutions
Authors: Shoureshe Kanani, Hassan Zandi
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Historical monuments as architectural heritage are, economically and culturally, considered one of the key aspects for modern communities. Cultural heritage represents a country-s national identity and pride and maintains and enriches that country-s culture. Therefore, conservation of the monuments remained from our ancestors requires everybody-s serious and unremitting effort. Conservation, renewal, restoration, and technical study of cultural and historical matters are issues which have a special status among various forms of art and science in the present century and this is due to two reasons: firstly, progress of humankind in this century has created a factor called environmental pollution which not only has caused new destructive processes of cultural/historical monuments but also has accelerated the previous destructive processes by several times, and secondly, the rapid advance of various sciences, especially chemistry, has lead to the contribution of new methods and materials to this significant issue.Keywords: Air Pollution, Climatic, Historical Monuments
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9728778 A Performance Model for Designing Network in Reverse Logistic
Authors: S. Dhib, S. A. Addouche, T. Loukil, A. Elmhamedi
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In this paper, a reverse supply chain network is investigated for a decision making. This decision is surrounded by complex flows of returned products, due to the increasing quantity, the type of returned products and the variety of recovery option products (reuse, recycling, and refurbishment). The most important problem in the reverse logistic network (RLN) is to orient returned products to the suitable type of recovery option. However, returned products orientations from collect sources to the recovery disposition have not well considered in performance model. In this study, we propose a performance model for designing a network configuration on reverse logistics. Conceptual and analytical models are developed with taking into account operational, economic and environmental factors on designing network.Keywords: Reverse logistics, Network design, Performance model, Open loop configuration.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2064777 Variability of Soil Strength Parameters and its Effect on the Slope Stability of the Želazny Most Tailing Dam
Authors: Stella A. Arnaouti, Demos C. Angelides, Theodoros N. Chatzigogos, Witold M. Pytel
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The Želazny Most tailing pond is one of the largest facilities worldwide for waste disposal from the copper mines located in South-West Poland. A potential failure of the dam would allow more than 10 million cubic meters of contaminated slurry to flow to the valley, causing immense environmental problems to the surrounding area. Thus, the determination of the strength properties of the dam's soils and their variability is of utmost importance. An extensive site investigation consisting of more than 480 cone penetration tests (CPTs) with or without pore water pressure measurements were conducted within a period of 13 years to study the mechanical properties of the tailings body. The present work investigates the point variability of the soil strength parameters (effective friction angleKeywords: Soil strength variability, friction angle spatial variability, Želazny Most tailing dam.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4171776 Real-time Interactive Ocean Wave Simulation using Multithread
Authors: K. Prachumrak, T. Kanchanapornchai
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This research simulates one of the natural phenomena, the ocean wave. Our goal is to be able to simulate the ocean wave at real-time rate with the water surface interacting with objects. The wave in this research is calm and smooth caused by the force of the wind above the ocean surface. In order to make the simulation of the wave real-time, the implementation of the GPU and the multithreading techniques are used here. Based on the fact that the new generation CPUs, for personal computers, have multi cores, they are useful for the multithread. This technique utilizes more than one core at a time. This simulation is programmed by C language with OpenGL. To make the simulation of the wave look more realistic, we applied an OpenGL technique called cube mapping (environmental mapping) to make water surface reflective and more realistic.Keywords: Interactive wave, ocean wave, wind effect, multithread
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2479775 Electrokinetic Remediation of Uranium Contaminated Soil by Ion Exchange Membranes
Authors: Z. H. Shi, T. J. Dou, H. Zhang, H. X. Huang, N. Zeng
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The contamination of significant quantities of soils and sediments with uranium and other actinide elements as a result of nuclear activity poses many environmental risks. The electrokinetic process is one of the most promising remediation techniques for sludge, sediment, and saturated or unsaturated soils contaminated with heavy metals and radionuclides. However, secondary waste is a major concern for soil contaminated with nuclides. To minimize the generation of secondary wastes, this study used the anion and cation exchange membranes to improve the performance of the experimental apparatus. Remediation experiments of uranium-contaminated soil were performed with different agents. The results show that using acetic acid and EDTA as chelating agents clearly enhances the migration ability of the uranium. The ion exchange membranes (IEMs) used in the experiments not only reduce secondary wastes, but also, keep the soil pH stable.Keywords: Electrokinetic remediation, ion exchange membranes, soil, uranium.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1396774 Value for Money in Investment Projects
Authors: Jan Ceselsky
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Construction and reconstruction of settlements and individual municipalities, environmental management and the creation, deployment of the forces of production and building transport and technical equipment requires a large expenditure of material and human resources. That is why the economic aspects of the majority decision in these planes built in the foreground and are often decisive. Thereby but more serious is that the economic aspects of the settlement, the creation and function remain in their whole, unprocessed, and cannot speak of a set of individual techniques and methods traditional indicators and experiments with new approaches. This is true both at the level of the national economy, and in their own urban designs. Still a few remain identified specific economic shaping patterns of settlement and the less it is possible to speak of their control. Also practical assessing economics of specific solutions are often used non-apt indicators in addition to economics usually identifies with the lowest acquisition cost or high-intensity land use with little regard for functional efficiency and little studied much higher operating and maintenance costs".Keywords: Investment, municipal engineering, value for money.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1720773 The National Security Assurance of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Authors: Sholpan Zhandossova, Erden Ordabek, Yelbolsyn Nazarov
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the article analyzes the national security as a scientific and practical problem, characterized by the state's political institutions to ensure effective action to maintain optimal conditions for the existence and development of the individual and society. National security, as a category of political science reflects the relationship between the security to the nation, including public relations and social consciousness, social institutions and their activities, ensuring the realization of national interests in a particular historical situation. In national security are three security levels: individual, society and state. Their role and place determined by the nature of social relations, political systems, the presence of internal and external threats. In terms of content in the concept of national security is taken to provide political, economic, military, environmental, information security and safety of the cultural development of the nation.
Keywords: Kazakhstan, national security, religious extremism
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1954772 What Attributes Determine Housing Affordability?
Authors: E. Mulliner, V. Maliene
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The concept of housing affordability is a contested issue, but a pressing and widespread problem for many countries. Simple ratio measures based on housing expenditure and income are habitually used to defined and assess housing affordability. However, conceptualising and measuring affordability in this manner focuses only on financial attributes and fails to deal with wider issues such as housing quality, location and access to services and facilities. The research is based on the notion that the housing affordability problem encompasses more than the financial costs of housing and a households ability to meet such costs and must address larger issues such as social and environmental sustainability and the welfare of households. Therefore, the need arises for a broad and more encompassing set of attributes by which housing affordability can be assessed. This paper presents a system of criteria by which the affordability of different housing locations could be assessed in a comprehensive and sustainable manner. Moreover, the paper explores the way in which such criteria could be measured.Keywords: Affordable housing, attributes, housing affordability, sustainable communities
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2609771 Degradability Studies of Photodegradable Plastic Film
Authors: Nurul, A.M.Y., Rahmah, M., Muhammad, A.
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Polypropylene blended with natural oil and pigment additives has been studied. Different formulations for each compound were made into polybag used for cultivation of oil palm seedlings for strength and mechanical properties studies. One group of sample was exposed under normal sunlight to initiate degradation and another group of sample was placed under shaded area for five months. All samples were tested for tensile strength to determine the degradation effects. The tensile strength of directly exposed sunlight samples and shaded area showed up to 50% and 25% degradation respectively. However, similar reduction of Young’s modulus for all samples was found for both exposures. Structural investigations were done using FTIR to detect deformation. The natural additives that were used in the studies were all natural and environmental friendly
Keywords: Agriculture, mechanical strength, photodegradable polymer.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2752770 Mechanical and Hydric Properties of High- Performance Concrete Containing Natural Zeolites
Authors: E. Vejmelková, M. Ondráček, R. Černý
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Mechanical and water transport properties of high performance concrete (HPC) containing natural zeolite as partial replacement of Portland cement are studied. Experimental results show that in the investigated mixes the use of natural zeolite leads to an increase of porosity, decrease of compressive strength and increase of moisture diffusivity and water vapor diffusion coefficient, as compared with the reference HPC. However, for the replacement level up to 20% of the mass of Portland cement the concretes still maintain their high performance character and exhibit acceptable water transport properties. Therefore, natural zeolite can be considered an environmental friendly binder with a potential to replace a part of Portland cement in concrete in building industry.Keywords: Natural zeolites, high-performance concrete; hydric properties, mechanical properties
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1914769 The Flexural Strength of Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Cement Mortars Using UM Resin
Authors: Min Ho Kwon, Woo Young Jung, Hyun Su Seo
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A polymer cement mortar (PCM) has been widely used as the material of repair and restoration work for concrete structure; however a PCM usually induces an environmental pollutant. Therefore, there is a need to develop PCM which is less impact to environments. Usually, UM resin is known to be harmless to the environment. Accordingly, in this paper, the properties of the PCM using UM resin were studied. The general cement mortar and UM resin were mixed in the specified ratio. A certain percentage of PVA fibers, steel fibers and mixed fibers (PVA fiber and steel fiber) were added to enhance the flexural strength. The flexural tests were performed in order to investigate the flexural strength of each PCM. Experimental results showed that the strength of proposed PCM using UM resin is improved when they are compared with general cement mortar.
Keywords: Polymer cement mortar (PCM), UM resin, Compressive strength, PVA fiber, Steel fiber.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3290768 Optimum Design of Attenuator of Spun-Bond Production System
Authors: Nasser Ghassembaglou, Abdullah Bolek, Oktay Yilmaz, Ertan Oznergiz, Hikmet Kocabas, Safak Yilmaz
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Nanofibers are effective materials which have frequently been investigated to produce high quality air filters. As an environmental approach our aim is to achieve nanofibers by melting. In spun-bond systems extruder, spin-pump, nozzle package and attenuator are used. Molten polymer which flows from extruder is made steady by spin-pump. Regular melt passes through nozzle holes and forms fibers under high pressure. The fibers pulled from nozzle are shrunk to micron size by an attenuator; after solidification, they are collected on a conveyor. In this research different designs of attenuator system have been studied; and also CFD analysis has been done on these different designs. Afterwards, one of these designs tested and finally some optimizations have been done to reduce pressure loss and increase air velocity.
Keywords: Attenuator, nanofiber, spun-bond.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2029767 Methodology to Assess the Circularity of Industrial Processes
Authors: B. F. Oliveira, T. I. Gonçalves, M. M. Sousa, S. M. Pimenta, O. F. Ramalho, J. B. Cruz, F. V. Barbosa
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The EU Circular Economy action plan, launched in 2020, is one of the major initiatives to promote the transition into a more sustainable industry. The circular economy is a popular concept used by many companies nowadays. Some industries are better forwarded to this reality than others, and the tannery industry is a sector that needs more attention due to its strong environmental impact caused by its dimension, intensive resources consumption, lack of recyclability, and second use of its products, as well as the industrial effluents generated by the manufacturing processes. For these reasons, the zero-waste goal and the European objectives are further being achieved. In this context, a need arises to provide an effective methodology that allows to determine the level of circularity of tannery companies. Regarding the complexity of the circular economy concept, few factories have a specialist in sustainability to assess the company’s circularity or have the ability to implement circular strategies that could benefit the manufacturing processes. Although there are several methodologies to assess circularity in specific industrial sectors, there is not an easy go-to methodology applied in factories aiming for cleaner production. Therefore, a straightforward methodology to assess the level of circularity, in this case of a tannery industry, is presented and discussed in this work, allowing any company to measure the impact of its activities. The methodology developed consists in calculating the Overall Circular Index (OCI) by evaluating the circularity of four key areas -energy, material, economy and social- in a specific factory. The index is a value between 0 and 1, where 0 means a linear economy, and 1 is a complete circular economy. Each key area has a sub-index, obtained through key performance indicators (KPIs) regarding each theme, and the OCI reflects the average of the four sub-indexes. Some fieldwork in the appointed company was required in order to obtain all the necessary data. By having separate sub-indexes, one can observe which areas are more linear than others. Thus, it is possible to work on the most critical areas by implementing strategies to increase the OCI. After these strategies are implemented, the OCI is recalculated to check the improvements made and any other changes in the remaining sub-indexes. As such, the methodology in discussion works through continuous improvement, constantly reevaluating and improving the circularity of the factory. The methodology is also flexible enough to be implemented in any industrial sector by adapting the KPIs. This methodology was implemented in a selected Portuguese small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) tannery industry and proved to be a relevant tool to measure the circularity level of the factory. It was witnessed that it is easier for non-specialists to evaluate circularity and identify possible solutions to increase its value, as well as learn how one action can impact their environment. In the end, energetic and environmental inefficiencies were identified and corrected, increasing the sustainability and circularity of the company. Through this work, important contributions were provided, helping the Portuguese SMEs to achieve the European and UN 2030 sustainable goals.
Keywords: Circular economy, circularity index, sustainability, tannery industry, zero-waste.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 93766 Exploring Customer Trust in B2C Mobile Payments – A Qualitative Study
Authors: Ahmed Shuhaiber, Hans Lehmann
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Mobile payments have been deployed by businesses for more than a decade. Customers use mobile payments if they trust in this relatively new payment method, have a belief and confidence in, as well as reliance on its services and applications. Despite its potential, the current literature shows that there is lack of customer trust in B2C mobile payments, and a lack of studies that determine the factors that influence their trust in these payments; which make these factors yet to be understood, especially in the Middle East region. Thus, this study aims to explore the factors that influence customer trust in mobile payments. The empirical data for this explorative study was collected by establishing four focus group sessions in the UAE. The results indicate that the explored significant factors can be classified into five main groups: customer characteristics, environmental (social and cultural) influences, provider characteristics, mobile-device characteristics, and perceived risks.
Keywords: B2C mobile payments, Mobile commerce, Mobile payment services and application, Trust in mobile payments.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2722765 A New Empirical Expression of the Breakdown Voltage for Combined Variations of Temperature and Pressure
Authors: Elyse Sili, Jean Pascal Cambronne
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In aircraft applications, according to the nature of electrical equipment its location may be in unpressurized area or very close to the engine; thus, the environmental conditions may change from atmospheric pressure to less than 100 mbar, and the temperature may be higher than the ambient one as in most real working conditions of electrical equipment. Then, the classical Paschen curve has to be replotted since these parameters may affect the discharge ignition voltage. In this paper, we firstly investigate the domain of validity of two corrective expressions on the Paschen-s law found in the literature, in case of changing the air environment and known as Peek and Dunbar corrections. Results show that these corrections are no longer valid for combined variation of temperature and pressure. After that, a new empirical expression for breakdown voltage is proposed and is validated in the case of combined variations of temperature and pressure.Keywords: Gas breakdown, gas density, Paschen curve, temperature effects
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4892764 A Concept of Successful Collaborative Design towards Sustainability of Project Development
Authors: Yani Rahmawati, Nadjadji Anwar, Christiono Utomo
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Development in construction industry is leading to involve complexities in engineering systems; whereas it also required to its sustainability towards social, environmental, and economical aspects. Experts with requisite background and expertise are involved in order to integrate knowledge in achieving whole criteria through design process. Collaborative design is needed in order to attain optimum design through shared solution and goal from experts. This study is conducted to explore issues and approaches development of collaborative design research in construction and its influence to sustainability of the development. Literature review method is used in order to conceptually figure future research direction of collaborative design research. This research is a part of beginning process in doctoral research program, and will be used to support dissertation’s conceptual definition.
Keywords: Collaborative design, multi-discipline design, design process, sustainability of project development.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2225763 Food Safety Aspects of Pesticide Residues in Spice Paprika
Authors: Sz. Klátyik, B. Darvas, M. Mörtl, M. Ottucsák, E. Takács, H. Bánáti, L. Simon, G. Gyurcsó, A. Székács
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Environmental and health safety of condiments used for spicing food products in food processing or by culinary means receive relatively low attention, even though possible contamination of spices may affect food quality and safety. Contamination surveys mostly focus on microbial contaminants or their secondary metabolites, mycotoxins. Chemical contaminants, particularly pesticide residues, however, are clearly substantial factors in the case of given condiments in the Capsicum family including spice paprika and chilli. To assess food safety and support the quality of the Hungaricum product spice paprika, the pesticide residue status of spice paprika and chilli is assessed on the basis of reported pesticide contamination cases and non-compliances in the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed of the European Union since 1998.
Keywords: Spice paprika, Capsicum, pesticide residues, RASFF.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2401762 Sulfur Removal of Hydrocarbon Fuels Using Oxidative Desulfurization Enhanced by Fenton Process
Authors: Mahsa Ja’fari, Mohammad R. Khosravi-Nikou, Mohsen Motavassel
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A comprehensive development towards the production of ultra-clean fuels as a feed stoke is getting to raise due to the increasing use of diesel fuels and global air pollution. Production of environmental-friendly fuels can be achievable by some limited single methods and most integrated ones. Oxidative desulfurization (ODS) presents vast ranges of technologies possessing suitable characteristics with regard to the Fenton process. Using toluene as a model fuel feed with dibenzothiophene (DBT) as a sulfur compound under various operating conditions is the attempt of this study. The results showed that this oxidative process followed a pseudo-first order kinetics. Removal efficiency of 77.43% is attained under reaction time of 40 minutes with (Fe+2/H2O2) molar ratio of 0.05 in acidic pH environment. In this research, temperature of 50 °C represented the most influential role in proceeding the reaction.
Keywords: Design of experiment, dibenzothiophene, optimization, oxidative desulfurization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1974761 Modelling Silica Optical Fibre Reliability: A Software Application
Authors: I. Severin, M. Caramihai, R. El Abdi, M. Poulain, A. Avadanii
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In order to assess optical fiber reliability in different environmental and stress conditions series of testing are performed simulating overlapping of chemical and mechanical controlled varying factors. Each series of testing may be compared using statistical processing: i.e. Weibull plots. Due to the numerous data to treat, a software application has appeared useful to interpret selected series of experiments in function of envisaged factors. The current paper presents a software application used in the storage, modelling and interpretation of experimental data gathered from optical fibre testing. The present paper strictly deals with the software part of the project (regarding the modelling, storage and processing of user supplied data).
Keywords: Optical fibres, computer aided analysis, data models, data processing, graphical user interfaces.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1821760 Ports and Airports: Gateways to Vector-Borne Diseases in Portugal Mainland
Authors: Maria C. Proença, Maria T. Rebelo, Maria J. Alves, Sofia Cunha
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Vector-borne diseases are transmitted to humans by mosquitos, sandflies, bugs, ticks, and other vectors. Some are re-transmitted between vectors, if the infected human has a new contact when his levels of infection are high. The vector is infected for lifetime and can transmit infectious diseases not only between humans but also from animals to humans. Some vector borne diseases are very disabling and globally account for more than one million deaths worldwide. The mosquitoes from the complex Culex pipiens sl. are the most abundant in Portugal, and we dispose in this moment of a data set from the surveillance program that has been carried on since 2006 across the country. All mosquitos’ species are included, but the large coverage of Culex pipiens sl. and its importance for public health make this vector an interesting candidate to assess risk of disease amplification. This work focus on ports and airports identified as key areas of high density of vectors. Mosquitoes being ectothermic organisms, the main factor for vector survival and pathogen development is temperature. Minima and maxima local air temperatures for each area of interest are averaged by month from data gathered on a daily basis at the national network of meteorological stations, and interpolated in a geographic information system (GIS). The range of temperatures ideal for several pathogens are known and this work shows how to use it with the meteorological data in each port and airport facility, to focus an efficient implementation of countermeasures and reduce simultaneously risk transmission and mitigation costs. The results show an increased alert with decreasing latitude, which corresponds to higher minimum and maximum temperatures and a lower amplitude range of the daily temperature.
Keywords: Human health, risk assessment, risk management, vector-borne diseases.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2052759 Analytical Study on Threats to Wetland Ecosystems and their Solutions in the Framework of the Ramsar Convention
Authors: Ehsan Daryadel, Farhad Talaei
Abstract:
Wetlands are one of the most important ecosystems on Earth. Nevertheless, various challenges threaten these ecosystems and disrupt their ecological character. Among these, the effects of human-based threats are more devastating. Following mass degradation of wetlands during 1970s, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971) was concluded to conserve wetlands of international importance and prevent destruction and degradation of such ecosystems through wise use of wetlands as a mean to achieve sustainable development in all over the world. Therefore, in this paper, efforts have been made to analyze threats to wetlands and then investigate solutions in the framework of the Ramsar Convention. Finally, in order to operate these mechanisms, this study concludes that all states should in turn make their best effort to improve and restore global wetlands through preservation of environmental standards and close contribution and also through taking joint measures with other states effectively.
Keywords: Ramsar Convention, Threats, Wetland Ecosystems, Wise Use.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4673